1 9 0 ASNALa OF THE EOTAL BOTASIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. gomspemuS
8«; by the very short few-flowered spikelels and by the conic or obturbinate
fruit.
PLATE 4 5 - C a l a m u s filipendulus Bea. Leaf-sheath with the lower portion of a
leaf and a male .padix; terminal portion of a loaf, portion of a female »padil with
unripe fruits, from Scortcehiui's specimens No. 333' iu Herb. Eeccari; two full
grown fruits from the Calcutta Herbarium.
Ree. Eot. Surv. Ind.
Stein about
3 6 CALAMDS G0N08PEKMUS BeCC.
DESCBiraos.-Scandent. Shtailmd ,tm 15 mm. in diam. Liaf->hmth,
fia-alliferous, armed with straight, horizontal or slightly doiexed spines, which arise
from a very broad base (conoare beneath) and are Ó-15 mm. long. LtaUhmtl,
mqdla rery slender, finely armed with half-whorls of Tery sharp black-tipped
claws Lmvm about 50 cm. long; petiole flattish above, rounded beneath, 17 cm.
Iona rather powerfully armed at the margins and on the back with unequal claws
interu.in.ded with very small ascendent or horizontal spines; raeh.s acutely
bifacod ¡bove and furnished beneath with many irregularly set lather stout claws;
leaflets very few, 8 in all, the two terminal connate about two-thirds up,
two others very approximate to these and the two lowermost opposite and
remote from the upper pairs; they are all about of the same size aud shape (20-33
cm in length, by 4-5-5'5 cm. in width), oblong or spathul.te-oblong, somewhat
conca™ or spoon-shaped, gradually narrowed to the base, suddenly contracted
from near the apei into a caudate, linear, bristly-spinnloas tip (3 cm. long);
creen and oi about the same colour on both surfaces, glabrous, ngidnloua,
chartaceous, with acute cost» which are quite naked on both surfaces; margins
smooth, except at the sides of the tip, the lower one bordered on the uppM surface
with a polished band ; transverse yeinlets numerous and rather distinct. Jfofc sptuUx
Fitmle spudix short, comparatively robust, with very fow short partial
inflorescences, each with few, very short subscorpioid spikelets; primary spathe, tubular,
closely sheathing, thinly coriaceous, aculeolate, truncate and entire at the mouth; the
lowest elongate, flattish on the inner side, dorsally convex, where «regularly armed
with small straight, unequal spines; secondary spathe.s tubular, cylindrical, closely
sheathing, truncate at the mouth, aculeolate; spikelets (or abbreviated partial inflorescences
' ) 3-5 cm. long, very dense, with 3-5 glomerules (abbreviate spikelets.')
of flowers on each side at each spathel, with the flowers pointing upwards or
with a second arrangement; spathels shortly tubular, subtrigonous, truncate at the
mouth- involucrophotum and involucre almost explanate with an irregularly lobate
limb. -f,«i.W perianth explauate, with the calyx divided into 3 broad acute
lobes, and the corolla with the segment» much narrower than these but as long; the
cai VX and corolla, as well as all the involucres, bard in texture, deeply and very
sharply striately veined, of a rusty colour and with a broad shining, quite black,
Bcarious margin. F.-u.t rather large, 20-23 mm. long, 15-17 mm. m d.am., very
closelT packed, globose, ventricose, somewhat tapering towards the base, where
obsoletely angular by mutual pressure, with a conical and acute top ; sea es m 16 serie.,
broad sUniug, very adpressedly imbricate, convex and not channelled along the middle,
brown-yellowish near the base, broadly bordered with dark chestnut-brown, very obtn.»
C. floribundus] BECCAEI. MONOG-EAPH OF THE GENUS CAIAMTIS. 191
or rounded at the apex and with an erose denticulate margin. Seed very irregularly
globular and acutely angular, 10-12 mm. in diam,; chalazal fovea indistinct; albumen
equable; embryo basilar.
HABITAT.—Borneo; near Kutcingat Siul, in Sarawak {Beccari P, B. No. 23).
OBBERVATIONS.—Of this very distinct spccies I have seen only one very incomplete
«pecimen consisting of one leaf and a portion of a spadix as to which I am uncertain
whether if it is simply decompound with very small partial inflorescences bearing very
abbreviate spikelets, or if it is supradecompound with spikelets 3-4; cm. long and
bearing few glomerulate flowers at each spathel. The main characters of this species
are the leaflets with few, broad, 5-costulate leatiets; the very abbreviated spikelets with
Tery closely packed secund flowers; the rather large fruit with a conical point and
not furrowed scales, and the angular seed.
PLATE 46,—Calamus gonospermus Beco. The entire specimen in Herb. Beccari,
37. CALAMUS FLOBIBDNDUS Griff, in Mad. Calc, Journ, T, 56 and Palms
Brit. India, 66, pi. cxcvii; Mart, Hist. Nat. Palm., iii, 337; Walp;
Ann. iii, 487 and v. 831 ; Hook, f, PI. Brit. Ind. yi, p. 4i4.
Becc. in Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind. ii, 204.
C. mishmeensis Griff, in Mad. Calc. Journ. v, 55 and Palms Brit. India,
65; Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm. iii. 337; Walp. Ann. v, 831.
C. mulUjloTtiS Mart, in Wallich's list No. 8613 {see Mart. I.e., p. 337,
No. 506).
DESCEIPTION,—Gregarious, trailing at first, then not very high scandent, 3-6 m.
long {C. B. Clarke). Sheathed stem 2-2-5 cm. in diam, or exceptionally
smaller; naked canes 7—15 mm. in diam. with a polished surface. Leaf-sheaths
sometimes flagdliferous, njore or less gibbous above, very densely covered with
spines of two kinds; some of them large, 2-3 cm. long, narrow, flat, subulate,
horizontal or deflexed, scattered and solitary or more or less confluent and subseriate;
others (by far the more numerous) much smaller and often reduced to sub-spiny bristles
with a sub-bulbous base; all dark brown, at least a!i their apex, and with a
light base. Ocrea with a short ovate liguliform limb, 10-15 mm. long and densely
covered with brown rigid bristles. Leaf-sheath flagella elongate, irregulprly armed
•with very unequal and sometimes long-tipped claws. Leaves comparatively short,
usually -6-1 m. in length, not cirriferous; petiole robust, channelled above
in its first portion, flat upwards, rounded below, very irregularly armed at the
margins with a few stout, straight, 1-4 cm. long, rigid, horizontal or deflexed
spines, which are swollen or sub-bulbous at the base; in addition the petiole is
rather densely covered throughout on both faces with small, short, straight spines,
which are subulate from a broad conical base and sometimes reduced to small spiny
tubercles ; of this last kind of spine some appear also on the rachis, chiefly at the
sides; rachis spinulous on the upper aspect (or sometimes smooth ?) where it is acutely
bifaced in the upper, and obtusely in the first portion, remotely armed beneath
(where flattish near the apex and rounded in the remainder) with a few stout
and long spines which, like those of the petiole, are sub-bulbous at the base but
suddenly deflexed and intermingled with scattered solitar> small claws; leaflets few,